Chapters 3, 4 and 5 Summary

At the auction, Qwilleran finds himself seated next to Iris Cobb, an antique dealer with an apartment above her store. As Qwilleran expresses interest in renting, Iris looks around for her husband, whom she says is going to do the bidding for them both, and also identifies several other people in the room. These include Ben Nicholas and Hollis Prantz, whom she identifies as other dealers, and Russell Patch, a furniture refinisher. Throughout the auction, Qwilleran overhears nervous and gossipy conversation about whether the string of accidents counterpointing the bidding might be the work of a ghost and also about a finial, which eventually comes up for bidding at the end of the auction, to the shock of many of those in attendance. C.C. Cobb, Iris' husband purchases the item amidst gossip and hints that Glanz was impaled on it...